New Delhi [India], August 16 (ANI): Former world champion PV Sindhu and India’s high males’s doubles pair, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty, will spearhead the house problem because the BWF World Championships 2026 get underway in New Delhi on Monday.
The prestigious event returns to India after a 17-year hole, with Hyderabad having final hosted the championships in 2009. The thirtieth version will probably be held on the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium from August 17 to 23, as per Olympics.com.
The World Championships, held yearly besides in Olympic years, supply the best variety of BWF rating factors alongside the Olympic Games, making the occasion one of the vital coveted prizes in badminton.
India could have two entries in every of the 5 disciplines: males’s and girls’s singles, males’s and girls’s doubles, and combined doubles. Sindhu, seeded ninth in ladies’s singles, and Satwik-Chirag, seeded fifth in males’s doubles, headline the Indian contingent, with Lakshya Sen and the combined doubles pair of Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto additionally among the many nation’s seeded entries.
Two-time Olympic medallist and ninth seed PV Sindhu heads into the event in assured kind after successful the Japan Open final month.
A five-time World Championships medallist, Sindhu has gained one gold, two silver and two bronze medals on the occasion. She will start her marketing campaign towards Ireland’s Sophia Nobel and, if she reaches the pre-quarterfinals, may face China’s third seed, Wang Zhi Yi.
Speaking at a press convention, Sindhu stated the World Championships being held in India makes the event particular for her. She additionally recalled her 2019 World Championships triumph and expressed hope of manufacturing one other robust efficiency after almost seven years.
‘It’s particular as a result of the World Championship is occurring in India. I’m excited as a result of it has been a few years since India hosted it. I gained the World Championship in 2019, and after nearly seven years, I’m hoping to do effectively once more,’ Sindhu stated.
The Indian shuttler stated successful on the Japan Open has boosted her confidence forward of the distinguished event.
‘The Japan Open gave me a variety of confidence, and I hope to hold that confidence ahead. Everything goes effectively, so I’m taking it one match at a time and looking out ahead to the competitors,’ she added.
Sindhu additionally expressed pleasure about taking part in in entrance of the house crowd and stated the help from Indian followers could be an added enhance in the course of the competitors.
‘The crowd will give us a variety of help, and I’m actually blissful to play the World Championship at residence. I hope to benefit from it and win a medal,’ she stated.
Unnati Hooda is the opposite Indian consultant within the ladies’s singles.
In the boys’s doubles, Asian Games champions and fifth seeds Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will look to hold the momentum from their Singapore Open triumph in May, the place they claimed the BWF Super 750 title. The Indian pair, who gained bronze on the 2022 and 2025 World Championships, will probably be aiming to go a step additional on residence soil and problem for his or her maiden world title.
India’s males’s singles problem will probably be led by 14th seed Lakshya Sen, a bronze medallist on the 2021 World Championships, and Twenty second-ranked Ayush Shetty, who will make his World Championships debut. Shetty faces a frightening first-round check towards defending champion Shi Yuqi of the People’s Republic of China.
Ayush, nonetheless, faces the hardest opening-round check among the many Indian contingent, having been drawn towards China’s high seed and reigning world champion Shi Yuqi.
Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand will spearhead India’s ladies’s doubles problem, whereas the combined doubles occasion will function three Indian pairs, essentially the most among the many 5 disciplines.
Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto, seeded fifteenth, will lead the nation’s combined doubles marketing campaign.
BWF World Championships 2026: India badminton squad:
Men’s singles: Lakshya Sen, Ayush Shetty
Men’s doubles: Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty, Hariharan Amsakarunan-MR Arjun
Women’s singles: PV Sindhu, Unnati Hooda
Women’s doubles: Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand, Kavipriya Selvam-Simran Singhi
Mixed doubles: Dhruv Kapila-Tanisha Crasto, Rohan Kapoor-Ruthvika Gadde, Ashith Surya-Amrutha Pramuthesh. (ANI)